To evaluate the occurrence of dental caries, caries activity, oral health behaviors and their associations in children with visual impairment in Nanjing School for the Blind.

Thirty-eight children with visual impairment aging from 4 to13 were examined for their dental caries according to WHO standards and requirement of the 4th National Oral Health Epidemic Study. The study was carried out during September 2020 to October 2020. Caries activity was tested using Cariostat method. Questionnaire about oral health habits were obtained from the main caregivers of the children. Software SPSS 26.0 was applied for statistical analysis. Fisher exact test and non-parametric test were carried out to compare caries prevalence, dmft/DMFT, filling rate, caries activity as well as oral health habits between boys and girls. Spearman′s correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between caries and caries activity, as well as caries and oral health habits.

A total of 38 questionnaires were retrieved, among which 37 were valid and 1 was invalid. Caries prevalence of the whole examined population was 68.4%. The mean dmft/DMFT was 3.89 ± 4.34. The filling rate was 7.91%. The mean score for caries activity was 1.11 ± 1.41. No significant different was observed between boys and girls regarding caries prevalence and caries activity. Caries activity was significantly correlated with dmft/DMFT (r = 0.499, P = 0.002) . The way children brush their teeth was significantly correlated with whether they have caries or not (r = -0.405, P = 0.013) . No other factor was found to be significantly correlated with occurrence of caries.

With not enough proper treatment, the oral health status of children with visual impairment was more serious when compared with their healthy peers. More attention should be paid to these children and proper public health policies as well as public health measures should be proposed to improve the oral health situation of children with visual impairment.